DWJD Ministries = doing what Jesus did
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,.
- Romans 3:23
fig. 2
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
- Romans 1:21
fig. 3
Step Three
Step Three is realizing that we cannot go to heaven in our current state. God, as the Creator of the universe, is a perfect, righteous and holy Being. He will not tolerate those having sin for very long remaining within His realm. You see, God hates sin right down to His very soul (See fig. 1). The word for wicked is werasha [weh-raw-SHAW] and means 'guilty of sin, a criminal.' Those who break the established laws, we call criminals. People who break God's laws are what the Bible calls sinners. The word for hate is sane'ah [saw-NAY-ah] and means 'to hate.' That's pretty strong language for God to use discussing how He feels. Hate is defined as 'extreme dislike or disgust.'
The verse is telling us that God tests both the righteous and the wicked. The word for tests is yibhan [yib-KHAN] and means 'examines, scrutinize.' That means God is well aware of what everyone is doing. Man is not good enough to be with God by his own efforts. We are all sinful, unrighteous and unholy--just the opposite of what God is. The reason for this is we are all sinners (See fig. 2). We each have sinned. Even one single sin makes us unworthy to go before God on our own merit. We can sense the sin that exists within our everyday lives. We know that we live in a fallen state.
I know that the word sin and sinner tend to be a dirty word in our language. But, it needn't be. The word for sinned is hemarton [hem-mar-TAN] and means 'to miss the mark.' The word is actually an archery term. It means to miss the bulls eye while shooting at the target. When you are learning to shoot a bow and arrow, how many times will you miss before you are able to hit the bulls eye every time? Never! It's the same way with sin. We are unable to achieve God's perfect standard of no misses. We were all born sinners and so we sin. Our natural tendency is to avoid God and His ways.
The truth is that most of us initially ignore or altogether avoid even the idea of God, which only leads us into a deeper pit of depravity. (See fig. 3) We don’t like to admit that we are sinners. Interestingly enough, we all do it to some degree. the truth is we can come to God, but only on His terms. Step Three begins with a realization that we fall short of His requirements. But, that is not all bad news. No, it only proves that there has to be another way to Him. And that path cannot be designed or influenced by us. Once more, this realization of our sin must be acknowledged by each of us that we are a sinner. But, there is terrific news: The God of heaven loves YOU!
How to be Saved (Step Three)
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
- Psalms 11:5
fig. 1
Our Passion:
Teaching the world a method for studying God's Word
to learn and comprehend the meaning of Scripture